Oberlin City Schools Board of Education Meeting - 04/22/2025

001Oh, here she comes. Where did Rosa go? Who's that? We sent Rosa the wrong way. Oh. Uh oh. Rosa. Rosa went to get you. Rosa went to the other door to get you cuz you were over there, right? It was locked. Okay, we can call. Yeah, call it. Yeah. Oh, I'm calling this regular meeting Oops. Smash. I'm calling this regular meeting of the Oberlin City Schools Board of Education uh to order. Please call the role. Miss Anderson White. Miss Gatson's here. Miss Garrett here. Miss Dagel here. Missa here. They're here. Do we need them to say here? Okay. Um, and I will entertain a motion to adop job adopt the agenda for this meeting. So moved. Second. Okay. It's been properly moved and seconded. Please call the role. Oh, wait. No, sorry. Are there any

002changes, additions, questions? Okay. Now, hearing none, please call the role. Miss Anderson White, say yes. Yes. speak into the mic. Thank you. Did you turn it on, Miss Gatson? Yes. Miss Garrett? Yes. Miss Dagel? Yes. Miss Amecha? Yes. Okay. Next, we have citizens concerns on agenda items. Do we have anyone sign up to make comments about anything that is on the agenda? Any names? Nope. Okay, great. Uh, next we have news of note and presentations. Dr. Oh, okay. Tonight we have a couple of presentations from our lovely students and our staff as well. Um I want to turn over to them because um they're the experts in this area. Here I have Oberlin Elementary exhibition student council and soar uh recognition. Miss Weber got to turn it on. Miss Weber as most of my students

003who were here this evening. So it works out well. Um so good evening. Not just good evening, great evening for OES. Um we always try to have a great day here. When we were preparing for tonight, it was really hard to narrow down the amazing things that we're doing here every day with our kids. So we're going to highlight just a couple things. Um even picking photos for our collage at the beginning was really hard because it's been a fantastic school year. Um those are just a couple highlights. Um and a few more things that have happened kind of this spring late winter that I want to share with us. Um so something great is always happening here at OES. Um we are working on our one school one book program. This year we are

004doing the world according to Humphrey. We had our big book reveal at the beginning of April. Um if you're not familiar with the program, every student in our book our building is given um a copy of the book. We have lots of clues that lead up to the week. They're trying to guess what the book is. Um, this year it's the world according to Humphrey. We did a big reveal. We all unwrapped our books together and we read the first chapter um together online. So, a really nice moment for us to all share. This year we took it a little further. So, the main character in the book is a hamster. So, um, one of our staff members found someone to crochet little hamsters and we gave every class their own class pet. And the

005students are taking turns taking them home. And um we're connecting to families by having our students write the world according to and whatever their class has named their hamsters. Um so the kids take the hamster home, they write about what the hamster does with them in the evening. And then we're curating um a school set of books written by our students that will be in our school library for all the kids to enjoy. Um it's been really fun hearing the names of the hamsters like Cutie Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Super Humphrey. Um the kids have been really creative. Um the next thing we want to highlight is definitely some of the work of our staff um and students and families. Um the governor did a science of reading recognition program. Um and it was really about

006improving literacy for students. Um our school we applied in October when we looked over the application we thought this is a lot of what we're already doing. We're not having to scramble and dig and try to find are we doing this or not. A lot of it was related to good instruction for students, offering tiered interventions and enrichment. Um, and we were lucky to find out in March that we were one of the 48 schools out of Ohio, all of Ohio, that was selected and there were six of us in Lorraine County. Um, and we were one of the six. So, that's just a huge highlight for our staff and this literacy journey we've been on for a while now. um to be able to be recognized and say that all of those efforts, hard

007work, studying, professional development have really paid off. Um it's it's showing in our students um and at the state level. We have also been expanding enrichment with a spelling bee. We've had a spelling bee in the past, but usually it was just for fourth or fifth grade. Usually students involved in our gifted program. Um this year, Miss Casmir expanded it to third, fourth, and fifth grade. and any students who were interested um could join. And that was great because I told them they were much braver than I was because even at my age now, I would not enter a spelling bee. It's not my forte, but we were glad to see so many students take a risk. And we had um four spellers actually go on to the county level and compete at the ESC.

008And finally, um we're installing some new things around the building. And if you visit our playground, you'll see a communication board and it's for students who might need a little extra support in communicating their needs or desires or how to get others to play with them. Um, it's a board of images where they can communicate by pointing out the images. Um, and we've also installed sensory paths around the building so when students or adults need to get a little more movement out or move in a creative way, the students can utilize those sensory paths. Um, and you can see one of our students um, using it there. We have lots more to come, including kinder camp. So, if you know any um, students who are going to be in kindergarten, urge them to register with

009us and get enrolled in our kinder camp. Um, we're going to hear about PYP exhibition. We'll have preschool bridging. We have lots of students who are going to the special Olympics and representing us this year. Um, we'll also have our math and literacy night in May. Um, and our carnival theme field day, of course, our fifth grade clap-in on the last day of school to celebrate our fifth graders. And then, of course, Pi, the principal will come after our ne and they're all smiling um after our next I Ready Diagnostic is finished at the beginning of May. But I'm going to turn it over to the people everybody wants to see, which is our students and our teachers. So, um, any questions for me? All right, we'll have them come on up. Oh, exhibition for

010Hi, I'm Charlie and I'm in the bullying exhibition group. Hi, I'm Adakus and I'm in food and security. Hi, I'm Kyra and I'm in the animal shelters exhibition group. Mark your calendars. On Thursday, May 22nd, the fifth graders of Oberlin Elementary will hold their annual exhibition night. At this year's event, student groups will present on topics we chose because they important to kids outreach. Topics include social media impact, bullying, animal shelters, food insecurity, youth sports, youth anxiety, and more. As an IB school district, the exhibition process allows us to bring together our knowledge and skills and share our research and action projects with Overland students, families, and community members. For example, my group food and security will be holding a non-p perishable food donation drive for Oberlin community services. As a part of our action

011project, we are designing a message to go out in the Oberlin City Schools newsletter letting people know about the drive and what items can be don my group animal shelters. We have donation drive for the friendship APL and we're looking for items such as um Kyina dog chow, wet cat food, towels, blankets, pet food bowls, and more. We have created flyers to publicize the event and we'll share them with you tonight. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, May 22nd at 6:00 p. p.m. in the Overland Elementary School gym. Do you have any questions? Did you say you were going to give us flyers for those things? Thank you. Exhibition is always my favorite night of the year, so I'm excited to see you all there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you

012for your patience as we get everyone set up. Third 8 12 13 Okay, we have everyone. We'll start with introductions. I'm Sarah Parsh, by the way, a fifth grade teacher. And that's Miss Ruez, fifth grade teacher. We're the student council adviserss. Hi. Hi. I'm Hudson and I'm in third grade. Hi, I'm Evelyn and I'm in fourth grade. Hi, I'm Charlie and I'm in fifth grade. Hi, I'm Adakus and I'm in fifth grade. Hi, I'm Kyra and I'm in fifth grade. Hi, I'm Sully and I'm in fifth grade. Hi, my name is Ka and I'm in fifth grade. Hi, my name's Alyssa and I'm in fifth grade. Hi, I'm Cooper and I'm in fourth grade. My name is My name is Evelyn and I'm in fourth grade. Hi, my name is Anthony and I'm in fifth

013grade. Hi, my name is Kylie and I'm in third grade. Hi, I'm Luka and I'm in third grade. Student Student Council has been a part of OES for four years now. It it is a studentled group made up of third, fourth, and fifth graders. Being in student council is a big responsibility because we work hard to help our school and community. To join student council, we had to be elected by our home room class. We we should we were chosen be we were chosen because we show the rise model every day being respectful involved safe and empathetic. In December we teamed up with Oberlin High School's interact club to run our annual soup and sock drive. We collected soup cans, non-p perishable foods, and warm socks to donate to people in need in our community.

014We donated these cans to Oakland Community Services. Right before winter break, we helped spread holiday cheer by making holiday cards for Kendall and welcome nursing homes. Every class at OES made cards to brighten someone's day. In February, we helped spread kindness kindness in lots of ways. We hosted a fun spirit week, made kindness videos and morning announcements, and shared kindness readalouds during our morning seal time. One of our biggest projects is still going on today, the kindness jar. It's right outside of the office and students can write kindness shoutouts for other students or staff. Miss Reber reads them on the morning announcements and then we deliver them to the people who were shouted out. We also celebrated Black History Month by holding a schoolwide door decorating contest. Every classroom decorated their door to honor important

015black figures in history. We judged the doors in different categories. People's choice, aka fan favorite, most creative, most informational, best theme, and unique use of materials. The winners got prizes from Miss Weber. On February 26th, we participated in the Eco Olympics event. We had two tables with fun ways to reuse old items. At the first table, we used old T-shirts to make friendship bracelets, headbands, and bandanas. At the second table, we made picture frames out of old CDs. It was a great way to show how we can recycle and be creative. For Women's History Month, we researched inspiring women from history and picked out quotes that touched our hearts. We enjoyed learning about the amazing things these women had done. We've done so much this year and we're so excited to see what next year

016brings. Thank you for having us tonight. Do you have any questions? Thank you. Thank you. You all did a great job. Thank you. Excellent job. Wonderful work. Thank you. Let's push it in. next presentation. Okay, next we have we'd like to recognize our great track team as well. Did a wonderful job and like to turn over to um Coach Hooks and um Coach Coachman. Yeah, all students speech tonight, but um I did type something up today. Uh these are all of our lovely ladies here. Um we have Kacina, Cayman, Olivia, Aubrey, Jasmine, and Alyssa. Between these six ladies, they participated in nine different events and earned a total of six medals at the indoor state track meet. And we ultimately took first place in division four um after a very exciting 4x400 meter relay at

017the end of the the meet. Olivia kind of made sure we got the gold medal there right at the end. Um there were some individual awards and some relay team awards. So Cayman was fourth in the girls 60 meter dash. Jasmine was sixth in the 200. Olivia was third in the 200 and second in the 400. And then um our girls 4x200 and 4x400 both got first place. Um our girls 4x200 was first by like five whole seconds which doesn't seem like a lot but it is in track time. Um, so our 4x two was Alyssa, Aubrey, Cayman, and Jasmine. And our 4x4 was Aubrey, Jasmine, Kachina, and Olivia. Um, and just like a little bit of history, Oberlin was the first team to win a Division 4 track and field title since they expanded

018to four divisions this year. So, they've also set the record for both the 4x 200 and the 4x400 meter relay. So, you all are part of history. All right. All right. And hopefully in a month or so, maybe six weeks or so, we'll be in Columbus doing the same thing. All right. Yeah, there you are. I tried to pick the nice ones. Wait, wait. Can Can I ask how long have you all been running competitively? I guess. How about you? How long have you been running? I'll do it for you. Thank you. Uh Aubrey and Olivia and Alyssa has been running the longest. They were starting in middle school. Um Olivia started before middle school, elementary. She was doing all type of her family and stuff, but u Jasmine came in they've been running since

019middle school up into the high school. So very competitive team and you're read they make us look good. That's what I like about you know [Laughter] even more exciting part three of them are juniors and three of them are fresh. All right. [Applause] Thank you ladies. Great job. wonderful um for our sports program and like to thank OES as well. And we have a couple other announcements to make. Um last week the Overland Heritage Center hosted its annual meeting and community awards dinner. A special evening dedicated to celebrating those who made a lasting impact in our community. During the event, the community educator award was presented to individuals, those who work and embodies the mission of the heritage center to make overland a better place to live, learn, work, and visit. This year, honores included

020Mr. David Ree and Mr. John Johnny Cole for their leadership for the man's um project that they have working with our young students at Oland High School. We also recognize Mr. Nicholas Ruez. Each recognition I recognize for their commitment to education, mentorship, and community engagement. Congratulations to all those uh well-deserved recognitions. Um next, I'd like to announce our district-wide spring music and arts festival will be h hel held starting at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, May the 10th in Oland High School auditorium. The music and arts boosters will be selling breakfast, lunch, and dinner items throughout the day. Today will feature performances by the OHS coral choir, um OS orchestra, OS band, LMS band, LMS choir, and LMS orchestra. The final event starts at 4:30 p.m. Each performance will last approximately about 1 hour. Like to

021thank our students and our families that came out for our Easter egg hunt for Rotary. We apologize to some. We did run out of eggs. We had tons of families showed up and tons of children showing up at that time. Um that was this weekend. Um, and I think our those that did not see Little Women play, it was phenomenal. So, you missed a great performance by our students and also like to thank our directors as well for helping out. Our teachers did a great job orchestrating that performance. Um, so I think a lot of our students in the dram performance did a phenomenal job. Next, I also like to um kind of change the agenda a little bit because we want to try to get some people out as well. Um, we have facilities

022update and I'd like to turn over to TDA for our facilities update um before we have a legislative update as well. So TDA, I'll turn over to you and Mr. Ival and they'll pro provide information regarding a couple resolutions on here about a 6 through 8 um construction project that we have going on and it's moving um forward and like to thank our city as well planning commission for approving that plan too as well. Thank you Dr. It's off. No, it's on. No, it's not. Report on our our work with uh entire team. I say that your administration's been working very hard with us on this uh effort and we appreciate their uh continued participation. Um, we've gone through the schematic design phase for the new, uh, 6 through8 building. Uh, I think everyone likes

023the plan, and it includes, um, art and multi-purpose rooms, classrooms, a new competitive gym, um, the board of education offices since they have to be relocated from Langston, and, uh, of course the middle school administration. Um, plus it has provisions for a future high school. We've gone through the planning commission and got approval. So, I think we're moving on a good track and we've been working closely with Jeff Tuckerman from Hammond Construction uh on budget. Um, so I think we're moving along well. Jim, did you have No, just uh would like to thank these two gentlemen for sure because obviously we don't have unlimited funds. Uh we've done this again, you know, without going back to the voters for a bond issue. So budget is paramount. The building's going to be beautiful, whatever it is.

024Um we appreciate the fact architects love to uh plan big great wonderful things that uh are phenomenal. So uh that's what this building is going to be within budget. So we're doing our best to stay there with that. So don't know if you have any questions about uh the process with the the master plan. I think everything's been presented to you and there there aren't any changes. Correct. So, we're just moving along. Process is moving along. Uh again, uh looking to be in the new building 27, fall of 27. So, we're doing our best. Uh I had a couple other updates. It would not be a facilities update without hearing something about Eastwood. So, uh, with Eastwood, we are, uh, still again trying to come up with the, uh, agreement with the Oberlin Land Trust,

025uh, for them to develop housing with it. Uh, we were trying to, uh, come up with an agreement with the Oberlin Land Bank or with the Lorraine County Land Bank. Um, that three-way agreement is not going to be able to go through. So, we've gone back to the uh Lorraine County Port Authority who we were going to work out the agreement with with our previous uh interested party. So, uh we do know that though that the Port Authority can can exercise that three-party agreement. So, uh that's where we are. That's why we've lost a month or two with that. We hope that it would be a little further along, but things take time. Uh the the last thing I think we put in the update this week was um believe it or not, we have

026come to the end of our our five-year uh food service management agreement with AVI and and by law we have to every five years go out to bid process to see uh if there are any other corporations companies that would uh like to entertain our food service management. So with that, it's a process of course of going out for um requests for proposals, RFPs, um which we need to submit to the state to make sure that uh our RFP meets their requirements for food service management. So uh we've provided copies of that to you uh with the goal of again putting it out to bid for uh AVI or whoever would like to bid on it. We will send our request for proposal to them. We had to give them basic information about number of

027days served, our staff, um that again we will continue to pay our staff, but they want to know all the costs um and the types of meals we serve, everything so that everybody who bids on the uh food service management has a has a fair playing field. So, um our goal is to get that sent down to the state in the very near future. Uh possibly early next week, late this week. So, if you have any feedback for us on that, uh, then we'll be waiting for the state to give us that back so we can actually send it out. Um, we will bring the proposals to you, the the bids to you and we'll go over it again. So, it'll be a team decision again on which food service management company we'd like to

028do. The goal since we don't have a meeting in July would be to finish it up by June, but we will see. I know it's uh end of April, so uh we don't want to have a meeting in June. I know. So, we'll try to get it all to you by uh June rather, not July. Sorry. Uh questions. I think a couple board members have been on that process before. I think um Joanne, you're on that process before as well, interviewing several other um agencies that'll come through. um which is actually a nice process to be on and um they usually come by do about a half hour 45 minute presentation for us and then we'll make um on a rubric makes choices from there. Yep. We'll do a a pre-bid meeting where they have

029a chance to come walk through the buildings and ask questions and we'll get them all the same answers and go through the process and then we'll give you their information and have them come in and present to us. And on your board agenda item J H and I are OFCC um requesting approval for those items. Those are the items referred to as OFCC expedition local partnership program and also the phase review comments and those are requirements um just like our last project we did with elementary that's a process we have to go through um program requirements and schematic design documents should be in the board packet that we need approval for for tonight for the project moving along. Thank you Dr. Hall. Any other questions for Mr. tribal, our TDA, our Hammond Construction. Thank you.

030I'm just wondering how many uh corporations do you typically uh interview for the food service? We can we can pick. I think the first time it was three years ago. We had six six apply the last time and we interviewed three. So, manageable. Yeah. Good. Yep. Thank you, Mr. Rel. Okay. Um, next on agenda, we have uh we're go to legislative updates. Um, I'm going to do an update on US Department of Education impact on U resolutions in the board packet and then we have um board members Garrett so we'll do an update as well. Um, she attended a conference and have a lot of information. There's been a lot going on within the state of course everyone I've seen within the newspaper far as your department um US department of education um inside they

031required us department of education also the department of education um to do resp um require us to fill out a form stating that um we're in compliance with DEI and our our federal funding could be in a jeopardy as well. So I made a presentation here to illustrate along with my team here about the impact of um how much federal funding the district do receive as well compliance. What we've have been doing for the last three weeks since I believe they came out in April 18th or sometime in April and we didn't have a lot of time for turnaround. The US Department of Education sent us a memo and all the superintendents in the count or United States telling us that we have to be in compliance with um their title 9 compliance and the

032DEI pieces. Basically, here's a basic test to consider. We've had our legal team look at it. We've worked with Niola. We worked with um um couple attorneys um OD and we've been coming up with different things, reviewing our policies for the last couple weeks here. Um here's a basic test. Consider whether something violates um the title. If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person's race, the education institution violates that law. Uh which normally are period we don't do that at all and we reviewed our policies and we don't see that. um permitted schools with programs focused on interest in particular cultures, heritage um and areas of the world would not in any of themselves violate the title assuming they are open to all

033students regardless of race. Nor would educational, cultural or historical observance such as Black History Month, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or similar events um that celebrate or recognize historical events and contributions and promote awareness. um so long as they do not engage in racial exclusion or discrimination. Um I think I believe sent to the board on a series of letters that uh US Department of Veterans US US Department of Education has provided um superintendents and community members uh regarding um DEI and their initiative to move forward with not having DEI initiatives within the schools. So for the last couple weeks um we've been reviewing the following items. all of our policies, courses, contents, um handbooks, initiatives that we have going on and documents. Um and we're still reviewing them currently. Um it's unclear of which ones

034are DI, which ones are not. The federal government and the state has not giving a total clear guidance of what they call it. So, we're going by what we have here of here's a basic test. So, basically, we have not found that within our policies, but we're still reviewing them. I think this is going to be an intense process and we're going to have to review with pretty much all our practices and see what goes in that category. Um I did not review them. I reviewed them as well and also our legal team has reviewed them and our Neola policy person has reviewed them. The financial impact if we um do not sign the agreement, US Department of Education um funding provides and I want to provide a clear expectation of how much funding we

035get from federal grants. So, if we do not comply with it, we're still unsure what the sanctions will mean, but current according to the US Department of Education and OD, um it will impact our federal funding for the district. Federal funding includes areas like title one. So, we received about $298,000 from title one. We also received title 2A um and also other title options here as well with IDAB. So we received a lot of title funding. There's more that I'll show you here in a minute. Um title um I IDAB funding for special education services is critical because this provide a lot of um services, teachers, support staff for special needs students. And these are some things that are in jeopardy if um if we're out of compliance. The academic impact would be federal funding.

036Um some of these things are tied to your federal funding and state funding and applying for grants. Federal funding includes early childhood special education um early childhood education, our ECE program that we have. Our ECE program is what we have here within the district that are economically um dispished students that we work with our students on. So that could be impacted by the federal funding if it's cut. um state funding. We um engaged in um initiative called each child left each child on track. That's a state initiative. So it's $50,000 over two years. Each trial on track initiative provide a team of people together that um analyze student data that look at their attendance that looks at uh review um students academics and try to build connections with them and collaboration with them to find

037out how can we help at risk students um get on track. We also looking at we have we applied for grants as well. Uh we applied for a gearup grant which is $65,000 that's currently right now being applied for. We haven't heard anything back from anyone because uh we're unsure of if that's going to exist or not. Um Gear Up provide resources for a lot of our high school students and also middle school students for college awareness and also would help with staffing if we get the grant. Um the Gear Up grant is a collaboration with several other districts that we applied for, but it has been pretty much um no communication to find out if that's still going on or not. um our literacy grant which was uh we reapplied for another literacy grant

038and our previous literacy grant. I know we provided information regarding um our literacy grant and our scores that helped out with a lot of our um our literacy programs that we have the testing teaching staff and it was it's very critical that we have that literacy grant. We had that literacy grant which moved our scores and also provided support for our students. We reapplied for it. I'm not sure we're going to get it or not, but end of end of the day, we're not sure if we will receive any more grants from the federals from the feds if we do not comply or if we do not comply, they may take us out of these grant options and say you're not eligible for any of these grants. Also, within our um federal funding, we have

039rates, which is about $300,000 over fiveyear period. -ate is utilized for our um technology um for the school system. State funding. We have network subsidy and safety grants um for our district. Safety grants. We're right now looking at providing um key access for our high school um FOB access forum. Uh we received several safety grants over the few years that have upgraded our technology and safety initiatives with our school district operations. We have to also consider what our federal funding, food services is considered in there, commodities, some of the food and some of the supplies we purchase. Um, safe routes to school which we work with the city on and also the health department. So, a lot of those things are included inside of our federal funding. Special education impact ID IDAB we stated before

040is $27,000. um funds are federal funds that we received to implement required services under individuals with disability act. Um this allocation is used for salaries benefits for two intervention specialists and three pair of professionals. So a lot of that lot of funding right there is used for directly impacting students which are staffing. We have a lot of SEAL programming too. Our social emotional learning programs that we have as well that's tied to our federal title three $3,000. We also have some safety grants um as well for programming. So we usually get safety grants that provide support for um restorative practices. Dr. Knight came in um and other initiatives that we have going on within the district. So that would impact that as well. We're unsure whether um the state foundation funding will be impacted as

041well. This is money that we get for the state. We get two different funds of u for the state. We get a restricted foundation money and we get non-restricted foundation money. Our restricted foundation money includes our wellness funding. some of our initiatives that we have with social services in the building, gifted, economically disadvantaged, homeless, that's restricted funding that is put strict specifically aside out of our foundation funding um for these initiatives. And we have non-restricted funding at $3.3 million. We're unsure whether because we have to send this document to the state and also to the federal to the US Department of Education. We're not sure what um the sanctions will be. They're unclear. They just said the federal funding um it would impact the federal funding thesis. End of today. Um it's estimated that the

042district will lose about possibly lose about $1 million in federal funding and we're unsure of um all of the other impact at state and federal level grants, federal and state scholarships, state foundation funding, 3.3 million. We're still unsure what the sanctions will look like. So, we do know that our based on the federal funding period, we get about $1 million for that. So, according to the letter received, we will not that definitely will um probably be a sanction. We're not sure it's going to be a warning or there's immediately going to stop the funding from the district. Um that concludes my report. Um so that is something that we have to provide to the sign off on either today um and provide it to the US Department of Education and also we have to provide

043it for the um Ohio Department of Education. No, I'm saying it wrong now. So Department of Education or Workforce. So I I have a question. I know you listed some state funding on there and it kind of sounds like you're saying you're not sure whether that is in jeopardy or not. Can you just talk a little bit about your understanding right now of how the state is playing a role in any of this and why they're requesting this form? They are. The state is requesting to make sure that we're in compliance with um the federal department of ed education. So pretty much like the federal department's here and the state's here. So they're kind of almost backing up what they're saying is it's federal US uh department of education saying you know you guys better

044do this. So the state saying yes, you better do this. Okay. So, we're not sure how to um the state has not told us, well, if you don't do this, this is what's going to happen, right? So, however, they jumped in um probably we received something from the US Department of Ed shortly after that. Then we received something from the state department from our state saying yes, we do we need a copy of it too. Okay. So, they haven't the state has not issued its own directive based on like the state constitution or any state laws. This is just like a pass through. They the federal government said you have to do it so we're just making sure that you do it. Could be. Yes. That's what it looks like. Yes. Yes. Okay. And then

045I don't know other people might have questions, but what what advice have we received? Like just in general, what are we being um what are our lawyers saying about, hey, this is what we think should happen or what our risk is. Um our attorney has been, you know, advising us on we have couple options. Uh most districts are signing up signing off on this. Um, one of the options where we sign off on it, compliance. Um, another option, uh, would be sign off on it and we make make a strong letter with it and send that to the US Department of Education. Um, our attorney said they're not sure if the US Department of Education will keep that letter or they just want the letter. They gave us a form letter they wanted. So, are

046they just going to want that letter and that's it and not keep anything if we attach a denim to it? Um they weren't even sure if we modified the letter but they keep it. So and what we're hearing from the US Department of Ed they want that letter that they pretty much made for us or we can join and fight with them or we can join a legal action against them. I'm sure other other school systems are doing that same thing. But we would um and our attorneys recommend that look they feel something's going to happen. Um the they felt that we see the letter saying that nothing will no sanctions will happen until the 25th, April the 25th. So that is what we're hearing right now to April 25th no sanctions will happen. Our

047attorneys feel the 25th something will come out on the 25th or shortly after stating that districts did not comply and some things may happen with it. They're not sure what's going to happen but they do know they're betting that something will happen. And have we gotten any updates on any I mean I know there's litigation that some folks have started. Do we know the status of that as of April 22nd? Uh we have not received any updates. Our legal was kind of hoping that these last couple weeks are last couple days that we'll see something but it's been quiet. Um so we have not received anything yet. Um, I think after the 25th, that's when we're going to probably see some list of who complied, who didn't comply, and what list we're on, and the

048next steps of whether they give a warning or our attorney wasn't sure if we don't do it at 25th, they can just cut funds that day and say, "Hey, we're not reimbursing you on that day." So, our attorney recommended they have no idea what's going to happen, but they feel something's going to happen. Any other questions? I have a I have a brief I have a I have a brief question. Is did our attorneys give you any indication whether this is there's any finality to what they're asking of us? Is this the end? I mean, is there uh is there an is there a chance that and I'm sure there is is there a chance that there could be other demands on school local school districts um to to to go even further into this

049rabbit hole. Um yes, they don't they're not sure of where it's going. I think everybody is waiting to see because it those executive orders can um can continue on and right now we're still unsure even what DEI how's how anybody's defining that. So and they also have a hotline too where people can say hey they're doing DEI here. Um so anyone can say hey they're doing DEI then they have to do investigative pieces and but we're still unsure of how that looks. So I'm not they have not even defined that yet. So there could be some other this could be one of three that's coming. I mean going back to going back to one of the slides I think the initial slide where um uh there's kind of a definition as to what programmings would

050not be would not be in put us in non-compliance. Black History Month, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. And I'm and I'm worried that, you know, any programming that that may be reported as being in not in compliance could put us in further jeopardy. Yeah. That's that's a concern. Yes. Okay. So, I have a question. We got this direction in mid when did we get this? April. Midappril. So, they wanted a twoe turnaround. Early April. Yeah. They wanted a quick turnaround. Well, it's been out there far as executive order has been out there for a while saying that DEI is not permitted. Um, so within the last couple weeks, it was um, well, we better make sure that we're not doing DEI. So, but they haven't they haven't narrowed down what their interpretation of DEI truly is,

051which is why we're up in the air as far as everything else is concerned. So that's why we're every well not just us but apparently a lot of school districts are going through trying to scrub everything or look at everything to see if we're compliant or not. Um and by the look everything our legal and nola has our service that we utilize for our policies. They have reviewed a lot of our policies and of courses. Um, I sent our legal couple courses that we have, our course catalog, especially at the high school level. Um, they don't see anything that may draw a red flag or anything, but they're still saying we we don't see anything that could draw a red flag, but it's all still subjective as to who determines what is and what isn't.

052Yes. Okay. Well, if there's not anything that's obviously a red flag, I think we should just assume that we're okay in the absence of any other information. Yes, I think we we've always been we've always been okay. Okay. I mean, as far as as far as this bullying letter is what I'm talking about. And we don't know what's coming next. So, I we just have to play it by her. So, we can literally say, "Hey, yeah, we're good. Um, here's the form. We're good." And someone could say, "Well, no, you're not." And then it's the Okay. All right. That's what I need. Yeah. And there's like a sanction process and Yeah. It's not pretty. if for some reason it's basically like you made a false statement if it turns out we have programs that don't

053comply with this statement. Um, but my question again though is or follow-up question is is there any inkling that this litigation that's happening now because you know a lot of stuff that's going on with this administration people have gone to the courts and you get a stop and then then it that stop goes away and it comes back online and then you get another stop you know. So is there an injunction or anything out there or restraining order or not anything to save us? I know they're battling with Harvard and a couple other universities as well. So, um, nothing has came through. And I know our attorney thought that I think she was hoping and something will happen probably to stop this by the 24th. It didn't happen, but it's the 22. Well, any Yes,

054we thought it would happen sooner, but maybe it will. So, then our I guess my question is, so we're going to wait till the last minute to sign this. Our attorney recommended for the 24th to sign on the 24th because it's due on the 25th. No, June on the 24th. Okay. But however, the 18th was um the feds wanted it on the federal government wanted theirs on the 18th, but our attorney recommended say, "Look, you know what? Maybe something will come through. Uh give us time to talk to the board." Um but OD wanted some wanted it finally filed on the 24th. It was not a was weird. one wanted one day and the other one wanted one on a different day. Um then they stated that that no no sanctions will happen until 25th.

055Ah okay. So we want to get it in the 24th at 11:59. I mean I hope they would give us a grace. Their machine might their fax machine might break. We might want to do it a little bit earlier than that. I mean they should have an email. Geez. If it's electronically, it's 1159 and 59 seconds. Trust me. Exactly. They got an email somewhere. Well, I guess we should ask the lawyers. They know. Any other questions? Okay. That was sad. That's really sad. Oh, all right. Wish it was happier note. Yeah. Are you that it is up now? Yes, that's mine. But um Miss Garrett has first know she wants to present on the workshop that she went to and provided a lot of some legal updates that she provide that um from attending your

056workshops. Yeah. Can I sit here and do it? Yes. Yes, absolutely. Okay. Okay. So, you're going to put up my thing on the board there. Okay. So, this was the national conference on public education that I attended in Columbus April 6 4th through the 6th. Uh there was so many sessions. I was really sorry that I was the only one from Oberlin because I had to pick and choose uh which sessions I went to. Um you want to go to the next slide? The first session was with Diane Ravich who is an author of many books on education, most notably Reign of Error, which came out in 2013. She's a she's like a celebrity in in the world of education. And next one and also Josh Cowan who researched uh the voucher movement for the

057last 20 years culminating in a book called the privateeers um which just came out. Um he researched how the voucher movement did not originate with parents. It was started by billionaires including the Koch brothers, Betsy Dvas, Elon Musk and the Waltons. And why? Because education, especially university researchers were showing that climate change is real. And this was also being taught in the schools. I know when I was teaching kindergarten, I read the Lorax to my students. Um, and they wanted this information to be suppressed. Um the three most important points that Cowan wanted us to take away uh oh wait yeah stay stay there um were vouchers are the school's choice not the parents uh they are the educational version of predatory lending. They are they will eventually bankrupt public education and push parents to

058pay tuition for their children to go to school like they do for college. And this is a theme that I heard over and over again throughout the the conference. Okay, you can go to the next one. The next session session was again with Diane Ravich. It was called policies and power in the fight against privatization and for public education. And uh Diane Ravage said that p public schools were put in place not to raise test scores. They were put in place to raise equality. The attacks on DEI can't erase reality. We pay tuition. We pay taxes for the public good. We pay them for police and fire departments and public schools even if we personally don't ever use them. The policies of the current administration both in Washington and Columbus are not intended to support

059the people. They are intended to support the oligarchs in public schools. They are we are not indoctrinating children. that is happening in religious schools. Okay, next one. This is Jess Pip Piper. She is a she was a real firecracker. She did a session on the science of reading. Um, apparently the science of reading has neither science nor educational research behind it. It was written by Alec, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is a right-wing think tank that writes and pushes all kinds of uh legislation all over the country. The intent is to steer away from the so-called woke agenda. Next one. Uh, it's about conservatives taking over education and it has been promoted by Betsy Devos, the W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W

060W W Wins, Doris and Donald Fiser Fund and the Bloomberg Philanthropic. Next one. The next section was on public uh policy matters uh honesty in education and the schoolboard alliance. uh and they made the point that students are our north star. CT uh CTR, LGBT, DEI, they're all connected in the anti-woke agenda sponsored by the Heritage Foundation. Next one. Um this is author John L. Lewis. Um he made the point that everywhere you go you are going to encounter graduates of public education. Resisting these attacks on public education requires dedication and an extreme level of persistence. Next one. Um this session was on lifewise and it was sponsored by the secular education association. As per the Supreme Court uh release time for religious instruction requires three things. First of all public uh parental permission. Second

061is must be off school premises. And third no money should be spent by the public schools. Um they talked about a book that is out uh promoting Lifewise and it's called During School Hours. Chapter one in this book is entitled Undoing Public Education. They describe public schools as their mission field. Vermilion was the first district in the state to say no to Lifewise. Um they created three policies. One, no solicitation, which translates into uh children bringing back to school candy or tickets or whatever tokens are intended to make their peers want to go. Number two, students can only be released during lunch or recess. And three, they require background checks on all of the adults that either take the children or instruct the children. Okay, next one. Uh, this session was on vouchers hurt Ohio

062part one. Currently 300 out of the 600 school districts in Ohio have joined the lawsuit suit, but we need all of the school districts including Oberlin. Um this is uh there's $1.2 billion dollar are taken from educational tax dollars to go to vouchers and that is money that we are losing. We could have full funding for all of our schools if we didn't have vouchers. Uh vouchers subsidize wealthy families. Eric Brown, who was a former member of the Ohio Supreme Court, was on the panel. He's the second one from the right there. Um he said that we must take all available steps to make sure that we have fun the funds we need to educate our children. Vouchers are a transfer of funds from the poor to the wealthy. The school it's school uh I'm

063sorry it's state sponsored discrimination. Next one. This guy walked in off the street and uh he did a a keynote speech. He talked about the teachers who had given him both identity and purpose, Francine Toss and Larry Thomas. He said repeatedly that public education isn't important, it is essential. Someone could be born into poverty but through education would have the ability to move out of it. Next one. This session was on organizing and uh coalition building. We need to educate parents as to how schools are funded. Ed choice is defunding our schools. Next one. This is Gina um Hina uh Hin Hinahosa, sorry. Uh she is a state rep from uh Texas. Um she said made the point that school choice is the school's choice, not the parents choice. She said it's a crass money

064grab. The endgame is to require parents to pay for their children's education. Uh, next one. This one was on organizing. They talked about a book called uh, healing together public schools strong by Asthma Alhouni. Um, and she made the point in the book that public education is foundational to the fight for democracy. Next one. This was vouchers hurt Ohio part two. Um, and they made the point that 90% of vouchers go to wealthy families. Vouchers hurt teachers also because less money goes into uh STRS. None of the ed choice funds are audited. None. And remember that democracy is not a spectator sport. Uh funds that are taken from districts will lead to the need for more tax levies. But we are winning in the court of public opinion. Public opinion is supreme when it comes

065to the Ohio Supreme Court because the only thing that they have to fear is public backlash. Next one. This is Randy Weingen. She is the president of the American Federation of Teachers. She was characterized by a member of uh Trump's administration as the most dangerous person in America. Um she made the point that when we get a chance to build back, maybe we can abolish the testing. Woohoo. Uh bullies count on people being afraid and hiding. Don't give up. Don't be silent. Uh the people don't want what the current administration is doing to our country. And lastly, uh this is Governor Tim Walls. He said that education is the great American equalizer. The two most admired professions are teachers and nurses. Now is the time for us to save public education. It's going to get

066worse and then there will be an inverse reaction and we must protect the most vulnerable when we get a chance to build back. We need to make it the way it should be both in education and in our society. The public is with us. History is with us. Morality is with us. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that, Janet. I appreciate it. So are we done with the we moving on to the next thing? Okay. So now we are moving on to action items. I will entertain a motion to approve board items A through J. So moved. Second. It's been properly moved and seconded. We have the approval of the March 18, 2025 regular session minutes. the approval of the teacher appreciation resolution which I'll I'll read that now. So whereas teachers

067mold future citizens through guidance, instruction, and education. And whereas teachers encounter and inspire students from widely diverse backgrounds, experiences, and abilities. And whereas the future of our community, state, and nation depends upon providing a high quality education to all students. And whereas teachers devote countless hours to prepare preparing lessons, evaluating student progress, mentoring, counseling, coaching, and contributing to their communities beyond the classroom. And whereas the Oberlin community recognizes and supports its teachers in their critical role of educating and nurturing the children of this community. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Oberlin City School District Board of Education strongly encourages all members of our community to join in expressing sincere appreciation to our teachers for their dedication, passion, and commitment to excellence in education. And that's to be adopted today uh once we vote on

068this action items. The second action item is approval of the classified staff appreciation resolution which is I'll read that now. Whereas the education of our youth is vital to the future of our community, state, nation, and world. And whereas classified employees are the backbone of our public education system, providing essential services that support teaching and learning. And whereas classified employees work collaboratively with students, educators, parents, volunteers, business partners, and community members. And whereas classified employees ensure the efficient operation of school offices, the safety and maintenance of buildings and grounds, the safe transportation of students, the preparation of nutritious meals, and the direct support of student learning. And whereas our community relies on and deeply appreciates the commitment and professionalism of classified employees who serve our students each day. And whereas classified employees with their diverse

069skills and unwavering dedication nurture and guide students throughout their educational journey. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Oberlin City School District Board of Education hereby proclaims its sincere appreciation for the contributions of all classified employees and encourages all members of our community to join in recognizing and celebrating their invaluable service. And this too will be adopted upon voting on the uh board items. Um the next one is uh the approval of Oh yeah, did I read through all those already? Okay. Yeah, approved. Approval of Ed Choice vouchers Herd Ohio. Do I need to read that resolution? Um, approval of the revised 2025 2026 and 2026 2027 academic calendars. Approval of the resolution declaring impracticality of transportation of identified students per revised code section 3327.02. Approval of the resolution to accept the third amended master

070facility plan for the OFCC expedited local partnership program and restated project agreement. That was a G. Um action item H is approval of the resolution authorizing the school district board to acknowledge the OFCC design phase review comments. And action item I is approval of the resolution approving the school district's program of requirements and schematic design documents for the construction of a new 68 middle school building in connection with the school district's OFCC expedited local partnership program. And then board item J is approval to authorize the superintendent to accept the legal obligations undertaken in exchange for receiving federal financial assistance and request for certification under title six of the civil rights act of 1964 and as clarified in the students for fair admissions versus Harvard and to submit any necessary asurances or certifications of compliance to

071the appropriate federal or state agencies. So, now that all that's been identified and read, do we have any questions, comments, concerns? Yes, Janet. Um, does this um item D, approval of Ed Choice voucher mean we're joining the um lawsuit? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Dr. Hall, could you go over the revisions to the academic calendars? Yes. Currently, now um we're able to meet with the teachers union and revise the calendars with our calendar committee. Um revisions to the calendar is the district will start school um after the fair and we will end school um on the 2526 in May and I believe in 2627 calendar we will continue to start after the fair uh so it don't impact our family and students and we will end school that first week in June. So that was collaboration

072with our um teachers union and also our administrative staff and I believe this counter here is probably better reflect um and we're in compliance with the negotiated agreement. Any other I had a question and I can't remember which item it came from but in one of the items to be adopted for the new building um in the OFCC there was um language around calculating and determining the enrollment of schools and that's to be the projected enrollment of our schools and that is to be done annually. Is that every year about the same time which seems like it's about now sometime in April or do you know I'm not sure if we have an answer yet. We can get it for you though. Okay, it's going to be done. I just know we get the question

073often, you know, what happens if the building is built and we have an influx of students or we have a loss of a great number of students. And I just want to Yes. Currently the building with the 188 kids that we have, the building is spec to have eight classrooms and we have 11. And then we also have two labs on top of that. And then we also have the music room and multi-purpose room. So there's a total of 12 classrooms and we're specked for eight classrooms, right? And and that's great. The question though is that that's the number based on whatever we calculated or projected today. So then and that building is not going to be built for or finished for another two years. So how does it work that we figure out how

074you know the size of the building and the number of students that building building currently weigh us now. We're anticipating with the size you probably have about 20 or so in the classroom. So we do have enough room for if we have more students coming in. How the calculation works is um at the end of the day the state will come in do another enrollment audit. So that it will impact our 21% that we're getting from the state. Right now currently we're building on our own anyway. So it's pretty much not a matter of whether u the state's coming in do our evaluation or not. That will impact towards the 21% that we're supposed to be getting from the state the total fees. They will do a final enrollment for us. And yeah, if you

075could tell me when that enrollment audit is done. Well, no, the the annual one. Okay. Just so that you know, we can share that with everyone and so that I can be aware as well. Any other questions on any of the other items? Okay. Hearing none, please call the role. Miss Anderson White? Yes. Miss Gatson? Yes. Miss Garrett? Yes. Miss Stagel? Yes. Ma? Yes. Next, I will entertain a motion to approve treasurer items A through E. So moved. Second. It's been properly moved and seconded, Bob. Um, yes. Okay. For the month of March, [Music] we finished the month with um 47,561,2954. That is a huge increase from the 20 million prior, but that is because we got the money for the bond sale for the new building. So that includes the $23 million in the

076building fund. Um and then the board is kicking in the $7 million which brings the building hopefully in at $30 million. Um we balanced to the penny. We had outstanding checks of $17,25266. Um, we did hit the market at a great time. We originally thought we would have to issue 5% coupons. We ended up issuing 4.85% coupons and we got an invested on Wednesday the 20 I think it was the 25th of March and the market crashed on Friday. So, we're projected to bring in a little bit over 4% for the three years that we have that money. Um, and that should generate more money for the building project to cover any overruns that we have. So, yes, it did work out quite well. Um as you can see from the report too is that

077most of the bond money we had we transferred to US bank and that's where it's being invested and that's through meter who is our investment advisors. So everything is done by our um investment policy and they have our policy and make sure that everything's being met. Next we have the five-year forecast. We did meet with the finance committee this morning. Um we did go over the draft of the five-year forecast that I emailed everybody. Um we are still waiting on final numbers for um homestead and roll back and we haven't received which we just got that payment. So I haven't updated the forecast with that and we're still waiting on our last payment for the um income tax which will come hopefully Friday. If not it'll be here next Tuesday. So, um, once I get

078those numbers, we did talk about it in finance committee. I will update it. I'll email it back out to the finance and I'll bring that to you in May to go over. Currently, I haven't made any adjustments for the current budget. Um, not knowing where it's going to end up. There are 22 um bills in the House and Senate right now that would affect school finance and not knowing which ones of those might end up in the budget bill, I just left it as current budget bill. Um really working off of what um Governor DeWine had in his original budget. So um once we get all that then we can recalibrate and we work on it every month. The report I give you is right from the five-year forecast where we are. You have the

079current budget and I update that budget as I make changes to it. Um so that you can see that we are meeting expectations and revenues and we are under spending what I have budgeted in the five year forecast. Um Bob, we'll get that on July 1st. Is that correct? the new budget from the state that in the past this is this is a in my 27 years as being a school treasurer the budget has never been passed prior to June 30th except one time it did pass on the 29th. They are hoping to have this passed by June 1st. So it should be a very quick conference committee between the Senate and House to get it to where it needs to be where they want it. But they are looking to do it much earlier

080because part of the House's proposal is to keep the state funding formula current but not implement the last two years. But the last line of that states that OD cannot pay schools any money from the state foundation. Um, that would mean we wouldn't receive foundation payments in July because there's no way if it doesn't p if it passes on June 30th, there's no way OD can turn it around that quick without using the current state foundation to make approximations on where they think that money is going to be. So, um, that would put quite a few districts in deficit and they wouldn't be able to make payroll. Not ours. Not ours. No, not ours. Um, and then the other big piece of that is the 30 30%. Currently, we carry over 68% and that's how

081we're funding the new elementary or new middle schools. So, that would definitely mean that we would have to play like as they said a shell game and transfer money into the construction project earlier than what we really actually need to. But we also have debt that we could pay off with it. We also have a maintenance fund for OSFC that isn't currently being funded that we could fund with it. So, we have places that we know we're going to have expenditures. Um, and the other big piece of the new budget is will they let us offset expenses that we currently are under obligations because we stretch pay teachers. So, we pay them 24 payments. Four of those are for July and August. So that is debt that we currently have. Will they allow us to

082minus that off of our carryover balance? Because if we stop business on June 30th, we would still be obligated for those funds. If it if we're truly a business like they're trying to treat us, then we have to be able to subtract any indebted debt that we currently have and take that off of our balance. So if we did that, it would put us down to right around 30%. So we shouldn't really have a problem. But again, we're not, like I said, in 27 years, I could pretty much tell you where the budget was going to end up. And at this time, I can't tell you what they're really going to do. And maybe we'll get an update at our June meeting. Most likely, it will not be until our August meeting. Yes, most likely

083it won't be till the August meeting unless they have it done by June 1st. Um, and then we'll have a lot of graphs and spreadsheets to show you how it's going to affect us. Our favorite. Um, as for all funds, um, really the only fund that has changed is the building project fund. Again, it went from $2 million to 24,389,000. So, um, again, we I did talk to Hammond, which does our projections on when when we're going to owe for the construction of the building, and that's how we build our investments. So, I have staggered stuff out up to three years um because our final payments won't come until um November and December of 2027. So, we know that we'll have money that can still be invested there. So, Um Jim already talked about the

084RFP for food service. So we will be doing that. Um we do have we need to transfer the nexus money that we did receive. The general fund portion of the nexus is um 378,356. will move that money from the general fund to fund 070 which is capital projects for phase two and phase three of our building project. Um we also need to approve the county auditor's millillage. Again they have left the debt fund at the 4.7 mills um so that we can pay off the notes that we paid off earlier. We use general fund money to do that. Um, and then our gap conversion company, um, Julian and Groo, they, um, our three-year agreement was ended this year. So, we would like to up renew that to have them do our conversion from cash to

085GAP so that it can be audited according to the state auditor's um, demand that we follow GAP in posting financial statements. And then for donations, we had $100 anonymous to the backpack program. We had Ohio pile $22.15 proceeds from the sale of spirit well. And from Tammy the we care closet. They gave us 27 baskets or 72 baskets I think it was. And the value was at um $720 and those went out to the elementary students. That was very nice of them. That was fun carrying them all in. And that's all I have. Miss President, are there any questions? Comments, questions? Hearing none, please call the role. Miss Anderson White? Yes. Miss Gadson? Y. Miss Garrett? Yes. Miss Stagel? Yes. Miss? Yes. I will now entertain a motion to approve superintendent consent items. A through

086R 8. Wait, yeah, R10. R10. So moved. Second. It's been properly employment uh for new legal firm, Roselle and Andrew Andrews. Um this is a new legal firm that we're using. One of our attorneys has switched firms from Walther Walter Hfield to this new um firm. So we want to retain her um to keep her um with us so we can utilize her. So, this is an agreement um that we can utilize her as well. She's not on a retainer. We can use her anytime we want. We don't pay for her unless we need it. Item B, approving a Medicaid U school program is for reimbursement. Item C is approving a proposal for the Ohio floor company. They'll be redoing our floors at OES, middle school, and high school. Be doing our surface forum. They

087do this um annually uh periodically throughout the last couple years and they resurface our floors getting ready for um the fall. Item D is approved to revised OPC permanent floatou. Thisou is collaboration with OC union. This will provide the district and the union with flexibility to cover buildings during the custodian when they're short. So our one of our maintenance people will be able to go and provide that coverage. And sometimes we confuse who's going to go over there, who's not, but this will a lot of flexibility um for that person as a floater to go over there. Item E is approval of double OA school counterou. Um this is just confirmed that teachers will have the 184 days and students will have 177 student days, not to exceed 177 student days. Um you notice on

088that we had to take one day off due to negotiated contract agreement. um they weren't able to um they have more conference time and they weren't able to do the 178 days. So it was incorrect. Um and thisou now will happen is during negotiations in two years we'll address that during negotiations. Item F is approved of Lewis British um legal firm and Smith for legal services agreement related to power school. Um item F is a recommendation. Uh we had a power school breach and um they recommend this legal firm if we do have any other legal issues with powers school this firm will help and provide support for us and also answer questions and training for our staff too as well. Item G is approve of the 2560 educational service center agreement. This is an

089agreement that we have um with the educational service centers for um for staffing for um different um supports that we need for our system. We have also the academy as well. And you notice on there too salaries are the salaries on there um they include benefits and all those um perks are included into the salary as opposed normally when you see a salary just a flat salary but it's not everything in there. So the benefits, all the other um health insurance, all those things are included in there. Item H is worker compensation group for workman comp for the cases. Item I is a therapy LC LLC agreement. Item J is hi translation services agreement. I had a question about the LLA. Is that a new group that we're working with? Because we have a contract

090for this school year and next school year. Thank you. Wait, come to the microphone first, please. Lla Therapy, we they provide related services to some of our students that are placed in separate facility placements. Um, we have worked with them in the past and it looks like there was an oversight that did not they they sent their contract for 2425 to sue ALEG and we didn't realize that that never got to the right person until they sent next year's contract. So that's why it's on for both years. Got it. Thank you for providing that answer. And can you just say who you are? Not for us but for folks that are watch. Sheila Felix, uh, director of pupil services. Thank you for answering that question. Thanks. Item J is approval of the 2425 HI translation

091services agreement. Um they provide um hi support, hearing and peer support for our students. Item K is approving a 2526 schoolbased mental health services agreement. Um Joseph a Januzi counseling consulting. Um these they're providing services for our students. Uh we do not pay them. They just in our building. So what we have them for um some parents utilize them but it's not coming out of our pocket our um our budget whatsoever. They just provide the support that we need for our students and then it's up between the student and the parents to make arrangements but they do also provide if we have um minor cases they would help and talk to students as well and provide training for our staff too. Quick question. So I feel like we just signed a contract for this for

092Januzi Counseling Services. Is that because they were new at that time or? And this is for 2526 too. It's for next year. We probably just signed them at time for this year. Got it. Okay. Correct. Approve of the 2526. Family alliance counseling. Same thing for services for next year. They're trying to get ahead of their services for next year. Um same services they provide as well for um our students and families. Item M is approve of an overnight field trip the LMS um eighth grade um class to Washington DC and we're very happy that's starting back up again for our students and have the eighth grade field trip our eighth grade um trip back on on agenda. Item nine is approve of the professional service contract for transportation for um support for Oakland College. O

093is Lraine County Public Health um school ESY summer programming. They provide nurse support and health support over the summer for our summer programming. Item P is a budget preparation um first reading of budget preparation policy. Not sure if Bob want to say anything about Yeah. What what this does is since cash balances are such a big topic in the um legislature right now. What this does is give us a minimum cash balance of 90 days. And if we fall below those that then it stipulates the superintendent and treasurer needs to meet with the finance committee and set up an action plan on when we're going to put a ballot on the issue to get it back above 25. And then it also caps it at 150 days. and it does the same thing is putting

094the board in how are we going to spend this money? What are we saving this kind of money for? And that's what we've done with the building project. So, we haven't it wasn't a board policy, but now we're instituting it as a board policy. We've already followed that procedure because we knew why our balance was getting high and it was to fund and we knew why it was getting high and that was the nexus money that we were awarded um with the pipeline that went through. So, So that's all what this policy does is just stipulate and tells the superintendent and treasurer when they need to involve the board to set up action plans on what we're going to do with the balances. Thanks Bob. And these are a few item Q are a few

095of the second reading for the policies that we've had on the agenda as well. They've been reviewed by Niola and our policy committee. Item R is a personnel report. We have a few resignations and item one resignations and we have a few new staff members. Um we have an absence. Um, we did hire a new Spanish teacher who was some Thomas Baron who would like to welcome him on board. So, he'll be starting next year and we have a few substitute teachers and permanent building sub as well. I just have a question. So, we have a permanent building sub on here who was the permanent building sub and then left and is now coming back. Yes. Um, he's going back from the high coming from the high school to um the middle school. Um, we

096were showed on a couple of subs and I believe um they interviewed and the one that was previously was going to do it turned him down I think um did not want to do that so we end up recruiting K to come back question you have the same question so he didn't want to build up high school but um I think things didn't work out so you wanted to come back to the Oh, I was I didn't know if any question many more questions. Um, we also have continued contracts. Um, Michelle Keser and we have limited contracts on there as well and some non-renewals. And item nine, item 10, we have for home instruction, which no one's on there. Um request approve item A through R10 from the board. You are you are allowed to

097but you can abstain also. Okay. I know why. I'm just trying to be clear. Yeah. Uh any other questions, comments? I had a question about the ESC. So, we have we have lots of stuff that the ESC does for us and we have a couple of employees that are employed through the ESC instead of being employed by us. And I was wondering one why we do that and two like what are the benefits of having them as employees of the ESC instead of being our employees? Um there's a couple reasons why. Bob can answer the financial reasons why, but also they're on like a one-year contract. So, they're year to year. So, it's um if we don't no longer need your services anymore, just based on the contract, we can just say we don't need

098services anymore. As opposed to being here on the contract, they may be on a two three year contract or if they're a teacher, they're limited to the limited contracts or continue contract. So, it kind of um as needed basis. So, that helps us with the AC. Sometimes it's um pay scale is a little different at the ESC. So that eliminates um and their benefits a little different. So a lot of times it's maybe the cost factor too that um the cost may be lowered in question. Nope, that's it for me. Uh no hearing. No other questions. Please call the role. Miss Anderson White. Yes. Miss Gadson, yes. Miss Garrett, yes. Miss Teagel, yes. Miss, yes. Next, we have comments, discussion, board update. Uh, did you have any further update for the legislative le liaison Janet?

099Well, I just wanted to make the comment that uh Bob mentioned there are 30ome 22 22 uh bills in the House that are going to affect the budget, but there are actually 86 bills that affect public education that are making their way through our legislature. So, it's it's pretty horrifying right now. Okay. um the endowment group, did they meet? Um no, we have not met. We did get all of the applications came in. So, we are reviewing that. We got $42,000 worth of asks for our $24,000 um of budget. Um so, we'll be making some hard decisions, but we're excited to give everybody money. That's nice. I mean, that's hard, but that's a good position to be in. Maybe we'll ask Bob to pay for something. Uh, thank you for that update, Joanne. And then,

100well, the policy committee, we had policies to review on our agenda today. Is there anything else to add to that one? Okay. Um, and then finance committee met this morning. So, want to give an update on that? Anybody? You want to? You can do it. I kind of already said we did meet this morning. We talked a lot about House Bill um 96 now or 89. I'm not but it did pass the House. It's in the Senate. Um we did talk about Nexus. I still haven't heard it when when they are planning. I did contact the county today to find out if they've made any delinquent payments, but I haven't heard back from the county. Um, and then we also talked about um what some of the cash flow would look like. Um, we got

101an update from the Ray English who sets on um, city council about um, what might be happening. Um, they're looking now at 17 houses on Green Acres instead of just six that they had put out there before. So they they are some properties that might be getting and he did say that they are redoing the um planning commission and how it works with the um zoning. Right. Right. Yeah. The zoning because right now it has to go like Eastwood if they start to develop that it would have to go to the planning commission to council black back to the planning commission and then back to council. And they're eliminating the second time through. So it would be once the planning, once the council, and which should help builders be able to work with the city

102and the planning commission. Oh, nice. On a faster track. So, we're hoping things get through. And then we did bring up to them that we're going to look to add um the new zoning to the Langston so that we can um not be held up like we were with Eastwood on getting it reszoned. So when you say new zoning, you mean the same zoning that we had at Eastwood, the R2? Yes, the R2. Yep. So that's what we met in the finance committee. Awesome. Um and can you So we have in the past um had two board members on the finance committee. Ken Stanley was one of the members on that committee. Um since he's left the board, obviously he's not on there anymore or is he's not on there as a community member, right?

103Okay. Well, he wants to when he comes back. Okay. So he in the future. Yes. Um, which is awesome. But my question is, do we, you know, is it required for us to have two board members? Okay. So, and Okay. So, we don't have to add another person to that committee. Got it. Uh, okay. Town and gown committee. So, uh, as I reported, um, last board meeting, I think, or maybe one before that, the town and gown committee has actually scheduled regular meetings every other week. Um, we're not always able to meet every other week, but we definitely meet a lot more than we have in the past. And the reason being is because the goalpost keeps moving. The law keeps changing. It's impacting everybody um in our community, the college, the city, and of

104course the school district. Um, so the last time that we met, we did talk a little bit about what was going on with this certification that the school board has to file. Uh we talked about it at the college level and how it's impacting Oberlin College and we talked a little bit about what was going on with Colombia and Harvard and the different um reactions. Um the college is holding firm and not wanting to proactively comply with things that they do not have to comply with. Uh which is great. They they have, you know, a lot of people who are watching it. They're fully informed. They're doing the same thing that our district is doing, reviewing all their policies and programs and all that. Um, but they're they're not going to, you know, proactively comply

105with something that, you know, may or may not be law. Um, and so they're they're being wise about that and I think they're in a position to do that. uh we talked about the position we find ourselves in uh as well and we're just trying to like give support to each other to each group or agency as we kind of weighed through all of this. Um and then the city weighed in on it as well. um and the representatives from the city, the two council members talked about how they went to a conference in DC and the conversations that were going on there and how they were trying to get access to our state representatives at the in DC and was they were not able to do that. Uh so it's it's just interesting times

106and so that's the main reason why we're meeting more regularly so that we can just kind of keep the lines of communication open and offer support to each other as we kind of wait through all of this. So, um, and the next meeting is actually scheduled for this Friday, uh, I believe. So, should have an update at the next meeting. Uh, and then I do not have an update for JVS. And then we have one other committee that's on not on here now because we don't have anyone appointed to us, the technology committee. Can somebody tell me what that committee does before I appoint someone to it? Um, I don't know. Go ahead. Yeah, I figured it has something to do with Super Steve. It's Steve. You got to turn it on. Okay. You're the

107one you're the one who sets these up. Uh so that committee was established from what I was told in relation to the tech levy itself. Um early on there were kind of they had needs for the money, but they also wanted to like develop programs, get a feel for what the teachers and the buildings wanted to do with the money. So not everything was allocated right away. Uh we maintained that for several years and then when online assessment was mandated and we had to go onetoone that has pretty much taken all of our funding in the past 10 years has just kind of been juggling seeing what we're going to cut trying to consolidate services. So probably the past five years tech committee meets maybe twice a year. Used to be almost monthly or quarterly.

108Uh but there's not really much discussion going on these days because we have mandates. Um so yeah, we meet about twice a year for about an hour, hour and a half. Uh kind of discuss pain points in the buildings, come up if there's like a new technology coming out or a new uh program available. We kind of do an evaluation of that, get feedback from teachers, and uh best decide how to move forward in the following year fiscally. Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. Um, so I would like to because we're done with all the reports, right? I would I have an update on mine, but go ahead. Okay. Well, I would like to appoint um Charlita Anderson White to the technology committee because we don't have a board representative on there. Um, would you accept

109that appointment? Once or twice a year, you say? No, I I'd be happy to. Thank you. But just know you're not getting off that easy. We have other we have strategic plan committees, but we'll talk about those later. Um, so thank you so much for accepting the appointment and thank you super Steve for explaining it. So yes, the the other thing we talked about in the finance committee is um we have two levies that need renewed in November. one being the um emergency levy for $940,000 and the other one being the PI levy that is two mills and we're only currently collecting one mill. Um we did talk in the finance committee. The emergency levy can move to a 10-year cycle instead of a five-year. And the finance committee thought that it would be nice

110if the board would instruct me to move that to a 10 10ear cycle instead of a fiveyear cycle. And it wouldn't change the language in the it wouldn't be on as a new levy. It would just be a renewal of the current one. It would just be for 10 years instead of five years. And is that something we need to put on the next agenda and vote on? Well, the resolution would be written for 10 at the next we will we will pass a resolution in May to have the county auditor certify the millillage and then in June we would ratify it again to have the board of elections add it to the November elections. The cuto off date is August 5th, I think, fifth or sixth. And since we don't have a meeting in

111July, we have to do it in in June. So, we start in May and then we do it in June. And that's how we've done every renewal since I've been here. So, uh, so in instructing you to change it to 10, we just do that here in this meeting. If there's no objections, I will have the language written that way. Well, you said in the meeting, does it is it a good idea? It seemed to make sense. We do um renewals pass generally with a 90% rate in Oberlin and then we just only have to vote on it every 10 years instead of voting on it every five years. Okay. Well, I don't have an objection to that. Does anybody else have an objection to that? Okay. Well, you got it. I do have a

112question though since we're talking about this. So there and and if you don't have an answer, that's fine because I'm putting you on the spot, but there's a uh ballot on the I mean there is an issue on the ballot for a constitutional amendment related to levies. Are you do you know about that? That that is um they're trying to take out the um fixed sum levy so that you won't be able to or not fix some I'm sorry replace the yes the replacement levy. So what do you know what that means to not Okay. Not well enough to put you not well enough. We don't have it so I don't really Okay. We don't we don't do those. No. Oh. Okay. Yeah. That's helpful. Okay. That that was a question that I just had.

113Okay. Um those are all of our committees. Do we I don't think we have any hearing of the public on items. He brought it. There was nobody on there. Uh okay. So then anybody got something? So, uh, future meetings, May 27th, 2025, regular meeting, 6 pm, right here, OES, 2010 North Park Street. Next one is June 17th, 2025, regular meeting, 6 p.m., uh, same place. And graduation is on, it's in between those two dates. Yes, May 31st. 31st. Okay. May 31st and I think we already got an invitation to that. I got aftermorial. Saturday after Memorial. Okay. So May 31st at 11:00 a.m. Yep. is graduation. So at Finny uh for those of you at Finey Chapel. So uh and then next we want to have a board retreat. Uh we have when I initially

114joined the board, we did those and then they just kind of went by the wayside. We actually did one virtually uh and it gives us a opportunity to do like a board assessment uh to talk about some goals that we have as a board evaluate how we're performing as a board. Uh and I think it's just important because I don't think we've done one in the last four years. Not since I've been on Yeah. Right. So I think it would be good for us to do that. Um, the thought is to just have it would be several hours, maybe a full day, not overnight or anything like that. And we would do it somewhere locally. I was thinking, um, Henry's Barn, Henry's Barn. Um, what we need though is a date that works for the

115board. And a retreat is still open to the public, right? Because we're all together, we have to have a public meeting, special meeting. Yes. So, it's kind of like a work session, but longer. Okay. Um, so can we really can we pull out our calendars really quickly so that we can do this now? The the thought What' you say? Janet's calendar's on her refrigerator. Come on, Janet. I should put you on the technology committee. That would be a disaster. Um I don't know if we want to do you want to double up in a month where we have a meeting or do we want to take the one month that we have off and make a meeting, you know, to do the retreat? I know. I feel like July is so iffy. Like people know

116if they're going to be out of town. Yeah. I I would not like July. So June or August? August. August. I prefer August. Uh, most board retreats are in August. Okay. So, and then will we pick just another I think we should do on a weekend. Are you all okay with a Saturday? Don't look so happy. Okay. So, a Saturday. Uh, now watch something come up. Let's say August 9th. Oh. See, it's not on my calendar. Thank you. Yeah, it is. Yes. Okay. I won't I won't do it that day. Uh the 16th. When does Well, we'll be getting into school starting back up. School start teachers be back the 14th. New teachers back the 14th. Yeah. Um when's our board meeting in August? 26. 26. I feel like the 16th would be nice because

117then the teachers could know about it before wants to Yeah, you got input because clearly fine question. Um, is this something that you're requesting the presence of your administrative staff? Um, I don't know. Okay. Just wanted to ask that question. You're considering weekends. That's why. Yeah. Oh, no. It's a board retreat. So, it's really for us to, you know, look look internally, look, but look internally and go, "Hey, how are we doing?" Administrator staff get weekends up. Really? They don't. Wow. Dr. Hall will be there. Um, and maybe some speakers 23rd. I mean, it's right before the board meeting and I don't know. Well, I kind of would like the spread. I mean, is this if you have a specific conflict and just say that doesn't work? I don't have a conflict. I just will

118be, you know, out and about out of town for the rest of the trying to be Oh, I see what you mean. What time is this thing going to happen? What time are we looking at? That'd be up to you guys. Yeah. I mean, I'm thinking like nine. If it we're going to do a full day, it be like 9 to5. If we're not going to do a full day, 9 to three. Maybe nine. Well, I want it to be past the lunch hour, you know, because I just, you know, we'll we'll break bread together, that kind of stuff. But yeah, and I guess I can't do the 23rd. I have something on that day already. Couple can we have everybody look at the 16th and then we can decide it at the May or

119the next meeting? Yes. Thank you. Okay. And if you don't, if that doesn't work for you, then propose, you know, some other dates and we'll we'll work it out. Okay. Thank you for that. I'll check with Henry Barn too, see if he even available. Well, I said I was thinking of that place. I don't mean we have have to have it there. Okay. So, now I will entertain a motion to move to executive session pursuant to revised code 121.22G1 to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of a public employee or official. So moved. Second. It's been properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? Uh, hearing none, please call the role. Miss White, yes. Miss Gatson, yes. Miss Garrett, yes. Miss Stagel, Miss Amecha. Yes. Um, and I didn't say this, but we

120will adjourn um once we come out of executive session. So, there we'll be finished with business of the meeting today. So all